Bafana Bafana head coach Hugo Broos has been brutally honest over why he’s overlooked Bongani Zungu for a national team call-up.
Zungu, 29, has yet to feature under the Belgian since he succeeded Molefi Ntseki in May 2021 and is currently facing an uncertain future in Amiens after his latest transgression that received major backlash.
While Broos hasn’t completely closed the door on several experienced players – despite initially stating his looking towards building with youth, his exclusion of Zungu has raised a few eyebrows.
“You know when you see his career until now and what happened over the last few years, yes I will see for the next few months but I don’t think for the moment it’s the right time to take him,” Broos said on Radio 2000 in conversation with Andile Ncube.
The 2017 Africa Cup of Nations winning coach went on to state that he’s been following the South African players outside of the country and has become aware of several who could potentially don the Bafana shirt.
“Yes we follow [the players abroad], in modern times you can do it, we have a site on our computer to follow the games, we follow them very closely, every week playing games, I think for them it’s very important they play there,” Broos explained.
“If I compare where they play compared to the South African competition, it’s still a level higher but we need… the countries in the West has an advantage on us, all their players are in Europe in better competitions.
“The players become better when they playing there, it’s important that they guys like Lakay and Tau are playing in their team, Hlongwane also – they can improve themselves too, something we need, players who are used to playing regularly against tough opponents.”
Broos is set to trim his 29-man preliminary squad by six players before they travel to Europe to face FIFA World Cup champions France and Guinea.
